Finally!

[Guetschow]

Okay, about a month ago, seems more like a year,  I joined and was asking about GS500F's and said I was buying one.  That process took longer than I thought.  Now however,  it is purchased, plates applied for (which read RPG1 and yes, they are  vanity plates.  Never owned, wanted VP's but for some reason just couldn't resist this one time) registered with DMV and will be sitting in my garage this weekend or by middle of next week.

Plan on taking a can of chain lube with me, any recommendation on that?  Also, is anybody running synthetic oil and any +/-'s with that or does it matter?

So thanks again for all your advice and patience your a great group and those of you who are in Illinois please contact me so we can ride or just connect for the time being.

Lance

[5thAve]

Uh oh. You've asked the OIL question. Prepare for a barage of flaming responses.

Only one thing that is for certain: Don't use synthetic for break-in period. I think most will agree on that. Personally, I don't see a benefit to synthetic over a good mineral oil changed religiously. Either way, always change the filter. Regular changes and filter changes are much more important than what oil is in the sump.

p.s. make sure your oil is OK for motorcycles, that is, it should NOT be "energy efficient" or whatever they label it in the USA. It can lead to much clutch slippage.

[tripleb]

I've never used synthetic as I'm a cheapass and go with conventional or whatever they call it.  I use Mobil 5000 which works just fine for me.  They say that pure synthetic will get you more miles between changes and will increase the beating you can give your engine due to it's greater lubricating abilities.

Like 5thave said, just don't use the energy efficient kind and change it religiously and you'll be fine with whatever you choose.

[drincruz]

well, welcome (i guess?). hehe

chain lube, well i use bel-ray. no complaints. does it's job. i like to clean my chain first though --wd40 or kerosene (whatever i have at the time).

oil, well like these guys said already, as long as you keep to your maintenance schedule you should be good to go. 

cheers,
~drin

[joker79507]

I havent tried synthetic oil in mine but I have heard horror stories of it being to slippery and causing clutch slippage.  I would just find out what they put in it at the dealership and go with that....wait a minute...that is what I did 

[ATLRIDER]

Like previously stated, check the circle label on the back of the oil container and make sure it doesn't say "energy efficient" cause of the slippin clutch issue it can cause. Other than that, I run 10w-40 dino from Walmart. 

One big advantage with synthetic oil is that it won't breakdown as quickly under high temps as dino oil will. Once you breakdown dino oil due to high temps, even if you just changed it,  it loses much of it's lubricating properties.  So unless you're stuck in traffic alot, you're probably fine using dino.

Congrats on the new bike.

[qwertydude]

No problem using synthetic as long as it is not energy conserving but I've yet to see and xw-40 synthetic energy conserving. Even on the BITOG forums I've seen the no synthetic during break in argument, yet I've never really known anyone with any problems who's done this. I know people who've rebuilt their engines and used synthetic straight away. On my old scooter when I bought it new I posted on the forum I drained the OEM oil as soon as I got home and put synthetic oil. It too started a furor on the scooter site, yet 10,000 miles later it was fine. 10,000 is a lot for a little 125cc scooter that's always revving at 8000 rpm especially cause I rode it freeway miles for probably 50% of the time. You really can't stress an engine more than all out full throttle high rpm top speed load. Also I never broke it in just full throttle revs from the beginning on synthetic and it ran fine. Heck lots of high performance cars come from the factory with synthetic so why can't motorcycles? The engines are comparable, high revving short stroke high power to displacement engines.

There are also some theories on bitog about constantly changing oil filters. It's a known fact on the site that if you do regular oil samples on your car or motorcycle in between changes you'll notice that the greatest amount of wear metals accumulates right after a fresh oil change, some credit fresh oil as not "broken in,". It's been my personal theory that since everyone changes oil filters every oil change that fresh filter has larger holes that get "plugged very fast by the large particles after several dozen passes then the filter stabilizes in filtration and will effectively filter smaller particles since the big holes got plugged. For my GS500f I actually replace the filter every 3rd to 4th oil change but drain and fill every 3000, gonna be 1000 this time since the Walmart didn't have Rotella this time and I used Mobil Delvac 1300, never again. The worst feeling oil ever. My valves are noisier, clutch is grabby, shifting is horribly notchy with lots of false neutrals, and impossible to purposely find the real neutral. And in only 1000 miles it's getting worse. I hate Delvac. I've done UOA's and just drain and fills tend to show that the "fresh oil change wear" is all but gone. If I was doing lots of harm to my engine by not changing filters all the time the UOA's would definitely show it. I guess I'll find out real soon how my unconventional engine practices will affect my engine. I've only had my bike a little over one year and put 24,000 miles on it. It's got 28,000 now and maybe burns a little less than 1/4 of the hash marks at 3000 miles that's with constant freeway use and I adjusted the valves at 23,000 miles and none were out of spec, only one exahust was close at .002" above the limit rest were .005". All in all you made a good purchase and with minimal maintenance you'll have a long lasting bike. Just take care of it and you'll be fine.

[Skeets]

Get synthetic after you have about 2000 miles on the bike... ITS GREAT. When I had regular in the shifting was clunky, and then when I put synthetic in...It was smooth as melted butter.

Get some chain wax. It's great... Ride around for about 10 minutes, and then apply it so it will stick better.... Reminds me I need to get more